Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by young British artist Jadé Fadojutimi, her first ever solo show.

Navigating through an emotional landscape, the paintings in the exhibition offer a window into Fadojutimi's fractured identity and quest for self-knowledge. The artist practices a cathartic relationship with paint; each work manifests a moment of questioning where frustrations and fears sit alongside moments of pleasure. Whilst Heliophobia (2017) reverberates with pent-up exasperation, Clumsy (2017) celebrates awkwardness in all its brash abundance. Fadojutimi envies the malleability of paint and its potential to communicate thoughts that evade articulation.

Fadojutimi explores how we adorn ourselves with clothes and accessories in order to construct a sense of self, with patterned stockings, bows and swatches of fabric recurring throughout the work. Outlines of objects that resonate with the artist, unbeknownst to the viewer, also feature surreptitiously within the work. In the same vein, Fadojutimi delves into how our environment informs our identity, the trauma of feeling displaced and not belonging to one’s surroundings; several of the works in the exhibition, such as A Dwelling for Absence (2017) and The Misguided Thrill of Frills (2017), capture scenes of ‘familiar unfamiliarity’ where far-flung places and foliage bleed in and out of abstraction, manifesting the artist’s desperation to distance herself from reality. These environments capture the feeling of trepidation instilled by the show’s title, Heliophobia, which refers to an innate fear of sunlight and the artist’s proclivity to work at night.

Fadojutimi explains that the works ‘are all questioning the existence of feelings and reactions to daily experiences. They question our perceptions and perspectives whilst manifesting struggles. Through trying to understand this, more questions are posed and my personal engagement with paint becomes a release. The frustration and envy that comes through the work is a realisation that these perceptions are not justified and instead sewn in subconsciously through society. They recognise a lack of self caused by automatically thinking that my identity is already defined, and also a frustration that paint can accept these characteristics better than myself. The show embodies a reflective process that intertwines these elements. Perhaps if they flourish together on the canvas, that acceptance can begin a process of realisation. A place for them to realise themselves and, in turn, myself - a resonance between the two.’

About the artist

Jadé Fadojutimi (b. 1993) lives and works in London. She received her BA from Slade School of Fine Art and her MA from Royal College of Art, London, where she was awarded the Hine Painting Prize 2017. She was also shortlisted this year for the Contemporary British Painting Prize and the Griffin Art Prize. Pippy Houldsworth Gallery will be presenting Fadojutimi's work in New York at The Armory Show in early 2018.